Made the law, made the trap. For some time now, some tourists had found a way to access Park Güell without paying an entrance fee and, moreover, during the time slots theoretically reserved for Barcelona residents. The key was in the Gaudir Més program, established in 2020 to try to allow Barcelona residents to access the park for free and during hours when it was not overcrowded with tourists. But soon the first websites appeared that explained to tourists step by step how they should go about getting a free ticket through this program, which theoretically was supposed to benefit only Barcelona residents. Now the City Council has plugged this loophole.

Barcelona will take another step toward decongesting Park Güell and its surrounding areas. The municipal government has accepted a request from ERC (Republican Left) and will reduce the maximum capacity of the park, one of the city's main tourist attractions, to 500,000 people over the next two years. This will reduce the current 4.4 million visitors each year to approximately 3.9 million. In other words, Park Güell will welcome 1,365 fewer tourists each day. A decrease of 11% compared to current attendance.

The reinforcement of the bus service, a greater presence of the City Police and Mobility Agents, as well as the possibility of accessing the park by bicycle during school hours, are the main measures that Barcelona City Council has presented to improve the quality of life of the residents around Park Güell. The First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, Laia Bonet, explained that these actions respond to the "neighborhood proposals and demandsin view of the critical situation that the community is reporting due to the overcrowding in their neighborhood.

"There are days when I have to let three or four buses pass by so they can get on board full of tourists. Our lives come to a standstill to promote tourism," explains Carme. "It's not logical that visitors use one bus for two stops, but an elderly person, a wheelchair user, or a stroller can't. The park, the transport system, or the residents can't handle this," adds David Mar, a member of the Turó de la Rovira Neighborhood Council. "There are more and more visitors, and now what we have is a road safety problem," complains Francesco, the driver of the V21 bus. "We need the 30,000 residents of Carmel to make the City Council listen to us!" exclaimed Montse.